Clothes hangers, also called garment hangers, coat hangers, or just hangers, have long been known in the art. Hangers can be constructed from metal wire, wood, plastic or a combination of materials. Commercially available hangers are generally a fixed length and cannot be adjusted for garments of different sizes.
Many types of clothing, such as sweaters, jackets, dresses, and shirts do not fit properly on standard hangers. A hanger of incorrect length terminates either on the shoulder or on the sleeve, leaving unsightly wrinkles or stretch marks. Traditional hangers generally bear one universal design, and are not constructed to accommodate various types of clothing. The smoothness of standard hangers can make them slippery, allowing many clothing articles to slide off and fall to the ground. This causes clothes to become wrinkled or dirty, requiring users to wash them again before use. Larger clothing items can develop undesirable indentations in the shoulders, which are caused by short hanger arms that do not extend across the full lengths of garments. Additionally, the ability to hang a variety of types of clothing such as undergarments is lacking in current hanger designs.
The present invention provides an effective and space efficient solution to the problem of ill-fitting hangers, allowing for multiple and unusual clothing items to be successfully stored without damage or unsightly wrinkles.
Patents have been granted, as well as applications published, to several designs which attempt to address the problem of fixed hanger lengths. The majority of these designs offer limited extension of the arms of the hanger or fail to successfully account for clothing of unusual shapes and sizes. Further the prior art does not demonstrate hangers which may handle multiple items of clothing.
Salem U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2004/0016779 is directed toward an adjustable garment hanger comprising a hanger body having legs extending in a hanger widthwise direction. First and second leg extensions are each adjustably engaged to a leg of the hanger body to determine an overall width along the widthwise direction of the garment hanger. A collar support extends upwardly from the hanger body. A spacer functions to space the hanger centerline from centerlines of adjacent hangers hung on a common rod to prevent excessive contact on a garment hung on the hanger by adjacent hung garments.
Spencer U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2008/0257920 is directed toward a garment hanger and a garment hanger apparatus. In particular, it relates to a garment hanger apparatus of the type in which the hanger arms for supporting a garment item are adjustable in length. In one embodiment an extension arm can be added to an existing hanger support arms and is infinitely adjustable in length by sliding along the support arm. Therefore, the effective length of the hanger arm can be selected and varied as desired.
U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2004/0129744 is directed toward a folding and expanding hanger for narrow neck top wears is comprised of, including but not limited to, a spring, two solid wings, a pivot pin, a hook, and a member connecting the hook and pivot pin. The novel structure of the hanger of this invention enables a user for easy putting of a hanger inside of the narrow neck of, including but not limited to, a round T-neck shirt, a men's dress shirts after engaging the buttons, or a blouse. This is by means of folding the wings inward and pushing the hanger into the neck of the torso covering garment. The hanger holds the shape of the top portion of the garment having a narrow neck by simply releasing the wings.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,145,098 is directed toward a hanger for hanging jacket, suit or dress, which includes a central hook holder having a hook pivotally secured in the holder, a pair of upper holding members pivotally secured to the central hook holder by a pair of first vertical-axis hinges, a pair of shoulder members respectively pivotally secured to the two upper holding members by a pair of horizontal-axis hinges each. The shoulder member is telescopically mounted with a slide member slidably held on each shoulder member for adjustably hanging dress or the like, and a second vertical-axis hinge pivotally connecting the two shoulder members. The two upper holding members can be first folded downwardly about the horizontal-axis hinges to be superimposed on the shoulder members which are then folded rearwardly about the two vertical-axis hinges to greatly minimize a total volume of the folded hanger for a convenient handling and portable use.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,641,084 is directed toward an adjustable clothes hanger that includes a hollow body provided with a chamber formed therein, first and second arms conjoined to the body and disposed exterior of the chamber, and a mechanism for slidably and linearly displacing the first and second arms along respective linear paths in such a manner that the first and second arms simultaneously extend and retract along opposed flanges of the body. The device further includes first and second hooks partially seated within the chamber and disposed along the flanges. Each of such first and second hooks has top ends terminating outwardly from the chamber and traversing respective travel paths of the first and second arms when the primary and secondary dials are rotated in corresponding directions such that the first and second arms are engaged and stopped from traveling therebeyond.
U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2005/0035159 is directed toward a garment hanger has a body with a longitudinal axis. A movable first arm is slidably mounted on the body for free movement with respect to the body substantially along the longitudinal axis. A constant or decreasing force spring applies a resilient force to the first arm to urge the first arm outwards of the body so that the first arm is able to move between a retracted position and an extended position relative to the body. The resilient force exerted by the garment hanger remains substantially constant or increases between a fully retracted position and a fully extended position.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,644,520 is directed toward an adjustable garment hanger is disclosed having movable arms which move laterally from a medial portion. The arms move because of engagement between a pair of linkage tongues and a medially positioned adjustment mechanism. The linkage tongues are positioned inside a U-shaped guiding channel positioned parallel to a pair of supporting arms extending from the medial portion of the garment hanger.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,664,710 is directed toward an adjustable garment hanger is disclosed having extension members which move laterally from a medial portion. The extension members move as a result of engagement between a pair of tongues and medially disposed pinions. Disclosed embodiments include manual adjustment knobs and bidirectional electric motors coupled to the pinion. Embodiments also include apparatus for indicating hanger size obtained by movement of the extension members.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,701 is directed toward an adjustable garment hanger is disclosed having extension members which move laterally on a hanger frame. The extension members move as a result of engagement between a pair of flexible racks and a medially disposed pinion. Disclosed embodiments include manual adjustment knobs and bidirectional electric motors coupled to the pinion. Embodiments also include apparatus for indicating hanger size obtained by movement of the extension members.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,391 is directed toward a suit hanger with adjustable shoulder members includes a main frame, an actuating assembly and a slidable shoulder members. By the action of the actuating assembly, the slidable shoulder can be extended to a full length to increase the width of the suit hanger or be fully retracted to decrease the width of the suit hanger. In light of this, the suit hanger can be readily adjusted to meet different requirements.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,397,038 is directed toward an expandable garment hanger with which the invention is concerned has a body, a hook on the body to suspend the hanger and a pair of movable arms, slidably mounted on the body. The arms are arranged to move in opposite directions. A locking device is located on the body of the hanger so as to lock the movable arms relative to the body. The locking device is movable along a path parallel to the path along which the arms are movable. A biasing device, preferably a spring is provided for biasing the locking device against movement in one direction so that when the arm of the hanger is set and locked in position the arms of the hanger are movable against the biasing force of the spring. The hanger conveniently supports garments of varying waist widths and maintains the hanger at the desired widths once the garment is mounted on the hanger but also allows the garment to be removed from the hanger by a small inward force applied to the end of the arm.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,535 is directed toward the garment hanger is disclosed having a body and a hook mounted on the body to suspend the hanger on a rail. A movable arm is conveniently slidably mounted in the body for free movement in at least one direction, preferably the outward direction. A locking device is mounted on the body to lock the movable arm relative to the body against movement in an inwardly direction preferably by the interengagement of teeth on the locking device with ratchet teeth along the top edge of the corresponding movable arm. The locking means is releasable by a lever mechanism operated remotely from the locking device to allow free movement of the arm in either an outward or inward direction. Conveniently, the releasable lever mechanism is mounted on a garment engagable portion at the outermost end of the movable arm. In one preferred embodiment of a garment hanger two arms are slidably simultaneously in the hanger body in mutually opposite directions, and the locking means is mounted for engagement with one of the movable arms.
Goldman U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2009/0277933 is directed toward a clothes hanger extender which attaches to standard plastic clothes hanger so as to be able to adjust for different sized garments. The channel end has a hollow interior with a substantially elliptical cross section. The first portion of the channel, the channel locking portion, has a locking portion width which is smaller than the channel end's interior diameter. The second portion of the channel, the channel transition portion, connects the channel locking portion with the channel adjustment portion to make a continuous channel. The last portion of the channel is the channel adjustment portion. The channel adjustment portion allows the clothes hanger extender to slide over a standard plastic clothes hanger. The channel adjustment portion alternatively terminates at the shoulder end, or is the shoulder end, depending upon whether the shoulder end is a separate component. The entire channel is formed by a material which is sufficiently elastic to allow the channel to be expanded from the locking portion width to the interior diameter without permanently deforming the material.
These prior art devices fall into several different categories, each having its own set of drawbacks. The first series of patents claim hangers with extendable or unfoldable arms. Such hangers do allow for hanging objects that would otherwise be too large for a traditional hanger, but fail to fulfill a need to hang multiple or unusual garments. Additionally, such devices do not provide the flexibility of being collapsible, making them inconvenient for travel usage.
A second category of prior art devices are based around additionally attachments to hangers. These devices address the issue of portability to a degree, but fail to provide a full range of usuage on their own. Such devices require the presence of an additional standard hanger. The present invention addresses this issue by acting as a standalone device.
A third category of prior art devices are hangers which fold to be collapsible. These devices are hangers which simply fold or telescope to a smaller scale to allow easy packing and transport. While these hangers address the issue of collapsibility, they fail to account for the necessity of hanging multiple or unusual clothing items. Additionally, they have all the inherent flaws of a standard hanger in that clothing may become stretched or wrinkled when hung.
None of the prior art devices address the need for a collapsible, versatile hanger capable of suspending numerous and/or unusual clothing items. The present invention fulfills such a need.